So, my wife gets an IPhone 4. She does not know what she has. She had some sort if goofy flip type phone that texting was hard and did not show all of the message, did not get email, did not get internet, …. it was just like an old technology phone that was klunkier than an Edsel. I hated it. We would laugh at it. Me and the kids have macs. All in. But she resisted….until today.

Now, let me tell you this. She does not know what she has. She has an Iphone4 but does not know how to work it. She does not know all it has to offer. She does not know all that is is capable of. She does not know all that it can do. She does not know all that it was made to do. She does not appreciate the power of it in a traffic jam to get around stuff. She does not know the power it has to skype all over the world. She does not know the power of money and purchasing it has. She does not know …… well, the power and ability of all it was meant to be. Then, I sit on the porch and think about me and God.

God has all this power, all this salvation, all this healing, all this provision, all this peace, all this love, all this joy, all this forgiveness, all this righteousness…… and I don’t just grab it! Me! I don’t access the application. I don’t use it. I don’t call on it. I don’t just get into it and just soak in all that God has for me. What am I thinking? My wife has this powerful product and she got it because me and the girls have apple stuff and she sees it and says I want that too.

God has it, I want it too. I think I can still learn from my wife. God has all these applications for my life and I don’t know what I have. I thought she did not know what she has…..it is really me. God has it for me and you.

So me and my 5 year old son are fishing. Of course, I am a fishing expert. Especially in the company of a 5 year old young boy. I mean, I have caught hundreds of fish, especially fresh water bass, and have a real good knowledge of how to do it, how to catch them, how to bring them onto shore….the whole deal. And me and my 5 year old little son have been catching these bass from a lake in our neighborhood….on artificial lures….I want him to get this early in life….how to do it without a cork and live bait.

He has caught some fish….had some success…knows what the bite feels like and knows how to set the hook….but he is just learning and under my close tutelage. I am showing him the ropes, step by step, technique by technique, special tactic by special tactic….lure by lure. But…well, he likes his own lure selection…and often it is … well, wrong. I want to make it right with him and basically tell him he can’t use that lure because it is the wrong one….but he likes it….so I let him. He has some success….some failure.

It is the classic battle I have with God. I seem to want to do it my way, to use my techniques, my lures, my way of thinking, my battles instead of just listening to God…..instead of just letting God tell me what to do and I do it,…..instead of just seeing that God has all the fish and I need to do it His way.

I want to try to get my son to do it my way….then I think about me….how often I don’t just do it God’s way. A classic battle between faith and works, between flesh and spirit, between trust and unbelief… Just like I am doing now with the sickness of one of my daughters…and so much of my life.. I want to do it my way.

God help me to do it Your way. Help me to help those around me to do it your way… louie

You have issues? I know a woman that realized she had issues….Yep…a woman. It was a bloody mess. Sort of a sensitive subject. So what.

There was this woman who had what the KJV says is….and “issue of blood”. She had it for 12 years. So, you think you have issues…..this lady had issues. Her battle is described in scriptures in Matthew and in Luke….but my favorite version is in Mark.

She had battled this issue for 12 years and Mark says that she spent all she had on many doctors but it did not get better but worse. You see, … she battled for many years with this and went every doctor she could afford. She went to every primary care, every specialist, got multiple opinions, spent all she had…..and then when there was no where else to turn…. she turned to Jesus. Me too! Well, I mean that I seem to want to try to figure it out myself before I head toward Jesus.

She had probably seen the large crowds in town before. She had probably walked right by Jesus while on the way to the doctors….and just dismissed him as a nut case…..because that is what the religious leaders of the day said about him. She had probably rode by him on I-95 on the way to Mayo, I-4 to Nemours… when what she needed was right there…..and immenently interruptible.

Now….do not take me wrong. I love Mayo, Nemours, Arnold Palmer, Moffitt….all the doctors…. but sometimes you have to get to where you just have issues enough that you turn to Jesus Christ. I have been there myself. I have searched the web on “issues” I have had….and seems like I turn to the Lord…..when I am a bloody mess.

So, this woman is desperate…. she gets out of her comfort zone, out of her people, out of her church, out of her upbringing, out of her way of life and she begins to beg…. I mean, she is a Greek, she is educated, she is proper, she is not from the area,….. she is used to getting it because of who she is….. Maybe it is her color, maybe her race, maybe her social status, maybe her place in life, her pedigree. But her daughter is sick and she hears about a healer. The scriptures do not say it… but I do…. that she has tried everything (like another woman in the record…her next). The last post shows that she was desperate.

So now she goes to Jesus. To the feet of Jesus. Under the table. Check this out. She went to the floor. She wanted the Bread of Life. She went to the source…..and found that Jesus said that what he had…healing power….salvation….was for the people of Israel first…not her yet! She was ok with it because she had a revelation about Jesus Christ…the Bread of Life. She had a revelation that whatever Jesus gave her was enough. That revelation was this…….what is in the bread….is in the crumbs too.

This woman knew that crumbs were enough. She knew that what was in the bread….was in the crumbs. She knew that if she only got a crumb…. that the crumb was enough.

You need something from Jesus Christ? Son or daughter, husband or wife, a sickness, money or a job..a house? Get on the floor, do not depend on what you can do and ask God in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. What is in the bread is in the crumbs….it is enough.

The Boogie Man…..that person under the bed…..that thing that will eat you alive….that bad thing that will dismember you…… I have never seen it but I am sure it is deadly. That is what melanoma is and especially Stage 4…where it has spread from the skin, through the lymph nodes into organs. The Boogie Man.

I have never seen melanoma……I was a motor cop for over 14 years (22 years in the job total) and in the sun in Daytona Beach, on the beach on a motorcycle as well as all over the city in a short-sleeved shirt in my early life….before sun screen was known as necessary.

A very close and good friend has stage 4 melanoma. I do not know what it looks like but it looks in my mind….. like the boogie man. This guy is one of the strongest men in the Lord I have ever met. Full of faith, full of love and a prophet….so much so that when he speaks….I can actually see in my mind what he is saying.

He told me today that God will heal him. I was sick one time. The doctors thought I had leukemia. I just could not see myself as being dead. My wife and I prayed about it,….they got into my bone marrow and my liver and ….. well, I did not have it. My friend does have this advanced stage of melanoma. He does not see himself as dead….nor does his wife….and I don’t either.

You want something today to be grateful about…..be glad you are not in my friend’s predicament….. He said his steps are being ordered of the Lord. I believe him. On this Monday….curse melonama in my friend in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Join us today in believing with him that he is healed through the stripes of Jesus.

Oh,…. You are too by the way…. Saved, healed, delivered….Just complete.

On His arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. John 11:17

Lazarus is listed in scripture as one that Jesus loved. It is specifically mentioned in scripture……”the one you loved is sick.” So, this guy that Jesus loved is sick….bad sick. And this guy Lazarus, well, he eventually dies. And Jesus is not there. Actually, Jesus is in a town close by but does not immediately come….but He was going to go,…just not when everyone expected Him to come.

So, Lazarus dies and is in the tomb for four days. Tombs then were often caves in mountain sides or hills. The procedure would be to wrap the body in perfumes and then cloths and put them in the tomb, roll a really big and heavy stone over the hole to the cave. These holes or entrances to the caves or tombs would often be small. The rock to cover it, very large.

Jesus finally comes and tells those around to roll back or remove the stone. They tell him…..Lazarus has been there 4 days….and he stinks….some versions say there is an odor. Let there be no doubt about it…if you are in a cave in the desert for 4 days and you are dead….it stinks! And getting in there…well, would be stinky business. (You can read this whole story in John 11.)

That is like our lives. There are a lot of things about getting involved with this Jesus that is stinky business. Just some nasty stuff. Our lives are nasty. People on the street are nasty. The way we (I) think and act are nasty. A lot of what we do and are….well, just stinks. Like Lazarus,…a dead body.

Now, Jesus got involved in this man Lazarus’ life that day as Lazarus stunk. Jesus dealt with it and raised Lazarus from the dead. He fixed it. That is what Jesus wants to do with the dead stinky stuff in our lives. My life. Jesus wants to deal with it. Jesus wants us too to get involved with stinky stuff around us….stinky business. Got stink? Jesus wants to deal with it. See stink? Jesus wants you to get involved. If we are not careful…we can walk right by something that is stinky that needs help. Roll back the stone.